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Shaking off a rock ‘n’ roll bad boy reputation isn’t easy—just ask Billy Idol. While he’s been clean and sober since 2010, his image as a rebellious icon lingers.

The “Dancing With Myself” singer’s had to wait nearly two decades for his shot at getting recognized at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since he first became eligible in 2007, but at last, he finally earned his first nomination this year.

The nomination back in February was the first development in a busy 2025 for Idol so far. He released “Still Dancing” — his first single in three years — last month. At the end of April, he’s dropping Dream Into It, his first album in 11 years, which with any luck, will be punctuated with a Rock Hall acceptance as well.

“Well, that would be rather fantastic,” Idol tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview via Zoom from his Los Angeles home,...

Jack White made a surprise appearance at Newport Folk Fest on Sunday, joining his friend Conan O’Brien to perform “We’re Going to Be Friends.”

The performance came as part of O’Brien’s collaborative set, billed as “Conan O’Brien & Real Musicians,” which also featured appearances from Nick Lowe, Dawes, Brittany Howard, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Mavis Staples.

White, whose friendship with O’Brien dates back more than two decades, was the final guest of the evening. “We’re Going to Be Friends” was an appropriate song selection, as The White Stripes played the track during O’Brien’s final Late Night talk show episode in 2009 (it also proved to be the final live performance of The White Stripes’ career). The song is also used by O’Brien as the soundtrack for his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.

After their duet of “We’re Going to Be Friends,...

The final guest during Conan O’Brien’s star-studded Sunday evening set at Newport Folk Festival was his podcast companion and friend Jack White. The pair first delivered a duet of the White Stripes classic “We’re Going to Be Friends,” with White and O’Brien trading verses. White played electric guitar alongside O’Brien on acoustic for the “song about friendship,” per White’s introduction of the track.

The song has a long history with the comedian: It was the last song ever performed on O’Brien’s NBC late-night show,...

The title One Hand Clapping, taken from a Japanese kōan, tells you nearly everything you need to know about Paul McCartney and Wings’ 1974 Abbey Road sessions: These performances are an event rarely seen and heard even less often. For years, you’ve had to imagine what didn’t leak out from the studio as bootlegs for yourself. Those who do know these session know them as greasy VHS transfers to YouTube and bonus tracks to Band on the Run and Venus and Mars reissues. In the past, McCartney fans would...

In the age of concert videos so high-definition you can see individual beads of sweat, nothing seems especially unique about The Girl Can't Help It. Billed as "blonde bombshell" Jayne Mansfield's first starring role, the 1956 musical-comedy features a string of rock and roll icons performing their hearts out in vivid, widescreen technicolor. It's a delight for modern audiences to see Little Richard, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Platters, and Abbey Lincoln in one place, but nothing revolutionary when we have YouTube at our fingertips.

Asia Argento (“The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things”), Frances Barber (“A Bird Flew In”), Tamer Hassan (“The Football Factory”), Laura Whitmore (“Sadhbh”) and child actor Erin Ainsworth have joined the cast of “A Mother for an Hour.”

The film, which is being directed by Giga Agladze, follows the story of a woman who poses as the lost mother of a dying child and discovers through this act a world of deceit and violence.

Agladze’s most recent movie is surrealistic drama “The Other Me” (2022), starring Jim Sturgess and Andrea Pejic, executive produced by David Lynch.

“A Mother for an Hour” is being produced by Kirsty Bell, Goldfinch CEO and co-founder of The Number 44, and Ben Charles Edwards, also a co-founder of The Number 44. The executive producers are Phil McKenzie and David Kereselidze. It is shooting in the North of England, predominantly in Newcastle, Hartlepool and surrounding areas.

Production...

"I just have to keep going down this road..." Abramorama has revealed an official trailer for a documentary film titled Mr. Jimmy, landing in theaters worldwide at the beginning of September. This is finally getting a proper release after first premiering at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival four years ago. Japanese rocker Akio Sakurai has dedicated his life to Jimmy Page. For 30 years he recreated vintage Zeppelin concerts note-for-note in small Tokyo clubs, adopting the guitar chops and persona of Jimmy Page. Moving to L.A. to pursue his tribute dream, cultures clash and Akio's idyllic vision meets reality. Produced, directed, edited by Peter Michael Dowd who spent nearly 8 years and countless trips to Japan bringing Mr Jimmy’s story to life. With the approval of Led Zeppelin, the film features 30 of their songs as performed by Akio Sakurai. The film additionally includes Mr. Page's songwriting before Led Zeppelin, with the Yardbird's "White Summer,...

Robert Gordon, a rockabilly devotee and singer whose band the Tuff Darts was a staple of New York City’s Cbgb and Max’s Kansas City punk scene of the 1970s, died today. He was 75.

His death was announced by his record label Cleopatra Records on Facebook. “Cleopatra Records would like to offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends,” the statement reads. “We liked working with Robert and will miss his powerful baritone vocal as well as his focused dedication to his music.”

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story Noel Duggan Dies: Founding Member of Irish Folk Group Clannad Was 73 Related Story Nolan Neal Dies: 'America's Got Talent' & 'The Voice' Singer Was 41 – Update

A cause of death was not disclosed, but a GoFundMe page set up by his family says Gordon had been battling an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia.

UK financier Goldfinch has shuttered three of its subsidiary companies.

According to documents on Companies House, Bird Box Distribution Ltd entered a creditors liquidation and Seis vehicle Bird Box Film Development is being dissolved this week. Streaming platform Birdbox.film, a short-lived VOD service, has also gone out of business.

Phil McKenzie, COO Goldfinch, told us: “Goldfinch continues to actively invest in the future of the UK and global independent film industry and operates across a number of lines of business. However, as with most businesses, some ventures are simply more successful than others. Birdbox Distribution Ltd and birdbox.film were only start-up ventures within the Goldfinch group and as with many such enterprises they unfortunately, and after a tough couple of years, became no longer viable and ceased to trade.”

According to Companies House, Bird Box Distribution (Bbd) amassed debts of £363,227. A large part of this debt was a loan owed to a young,...

The company has also shut down its Bird Box Film Development arm.

Three of the subsidiary companies of Kirsty Bell’s family-owned media outfit Goldfinch have gone out of business.

Goldfinch confirmed this week that Bird Box Distribution Ltd, the company set up to assist with film sales and distribution strategy in the UK, has ceased trading.

UK streaming platform BirdBox.Film, launched in May 2020, has also been shuttered, “as it was no longer viable as a business venture for us,” according to a company spokesperson.

A third entity, Bird Box Film Development Ltd, an Seis (Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme...

Cameron Crowe on Marc Bolan and T. Rex in Ethan Silverman’s Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex: “A little bit of Eddie Cochran and a little bit of like futurism and it felt so fresh …” Photo: Neal Preston

In my wide-ranging conversation with Ethan Silverman we discuss why he is indebted to Cameron Crowe, Hal Willner’s work on Kurt Weill, the gift from producer Bill Curbishley of Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Cole Porter, Danny Fields, Beth Orton, Joan Jett, David Bowie, Nick Cave, Snarky Puppy, and Ethan’s interest in Weill, Lotte Lenya, and Bauhaus projects. On-camera comments by Billy Idol, Bono, The Edge, Elton John, Nena, Ringo Starr, Gloria Jones, Rolan Bolan, Richard Barone, Tony Visconti, Bowie, and Crowe provide unique context on the cultural importance of Marc Bolan.

Ethan Silverman with Anne-Katrin Titze: “Hal Willner created probably one of my top five favourite albums of all time.

Exclusive: Eddie Cochran, the American rock n roll star behind songs such as “Twenty Flight Rock” and “Summertime Blues,” is getting the feature documentary treatment.

The musician, who influenced the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, is to be the subject of Don’t Forget Me from director Kirsty Bell, who recently directed A Bird Flew In.

Goldfinch Entertainment, which is behind docs such as Quant and Ronnie’s, is producing and launching sales at the Cannes Film Festival.

Cochran, who appeared in the the 1959 musical Go, Johnny, Go!, died in a car crash in 1960 at the age of 21 while his fiancé Sharon Sheeley, a chart-topping American songwriter who penned hits for Glenn Campbell and Ricky Nelson, and Gene Vincent and survived the crash.

Production begins next month and the producers are working closely with Cochran’s nephew Bobby Cochran, who has provided access to Cochran’s unheard masters,...

The Girl Can’t Help It

Blu ray

Criterion

1957 / 2.35:1 / 98 Min.

Starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, Edmond O’Brien

Written by Frank Tashlin

Directed by Frank Tashlin

In 1957 it was commonplace for burlesque comedians to share the bill with a musical act or two, but in New York’s theater district one of those revues stood out from the rest—it opened on February 8th at The Roxy, a magnificent theater dubbed “The Cathedral of the Motion Picture.” But that cathedral had never held a service like Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It—for 98 minutes the congregation was cajoled, regaled, and set free by a parade of clownish mobsters, gyrating showgirls and hyperventilating rockers raising the roof in 4 track stereo—the only thing missing was 3D—and who needed that with Jayne Mansfield center screen and busting out all over. William Castle introduced the gimmicky Emergo for House on Haunted Hill...

Car songs are a must on any Brian Setzer album. His latest, Gotta Have the Rumble, is no exception — it opens with the one-two punch of the racer’s taunt “Checkered Flag” and the noir-ish “Smash Up on Highway One.” But the singer, guitarist, and co-founder of rockabilly heroes the Stray Cats favors a particular kind of car. In other words, there’s no Tesla parked in the driveway of his Minnesota home. “No, no, no,” Setzer laughs when asked the question. “That’s a pretty amazing ride, though.”

At...

The Rolling Stones will mark the 40th anniversary of their 1981 album, Tattoo You, with a reissue featuring a bonus disc filled with previously unreleased material. The set will arrive on October 22nd via Polydor/Interscope/UMe.

To accompany the announcement, the Stones released “Living in the Heart of Love,” one of the nine previously unreleased songs that will appear on the bonus disc, Lost & Found. The nine songs were all originally recorded while the Stones were making Tattoo You, but were recently completed and enhanced with additional vocals and guitar by the Stones.

Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up-close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features bassist Bob Daisley.

Ozzy Osbourne has worked with many bass players throughout the course of his long solo career, but he undeniably did his best work with Bob Daisley.

For generations of aspiring musicians from the Deep South, country music and R&b are inextricably linked. That was part of the inspiration for a unique blending of performers from both genres for a duets album and corresponding PBS TV special in March of 1994. Rhythm, Country and Blues, released on the McA Nashville label, featured combinations of like-minded artists, one from country and one from R&b, interpreting songs from both genres.

Produced by Nashville titan Tony Brown and rock-pop producer Don Was, the LP opened with Vince Gill and...

As the most commercially popular punk band in the history of the United States, Green Day have often admirably taken it on as their obligation to make Rock For Our Times, to heal — or, if the case requires, salt — our national wounds. It’s a tough gig. The Clash only had to make London Calling once; Green Day have been around for 34 years, six presidents, four or five stupid wars, a few global financial collapses, and 17 seasons of The Voice. That’s a lot of American shitpocalypse to churn through.

Tony Sokol Sep 6, 2019

The film Yesterday imagines a world where the Beatles never existed. But what might have filled the gap?

In Danny Boyle's film Yesterday, a struggling young musician played by Jack Malik suffers an accident at exactly the same moment a major power surge burns all evidence of former skiffle group the Beatles out of the collective memory of the masses. Only the musician remembers the songs, the stories, and the band's place in the history of popular music. The film, however, is still set in a world where the culture that was shaped by the influence of four relatively working class musicians from a port city remained curiously intact. The Rolling Stones are still around; so is Childish Gambino, thank the gods of music. But Oasis doesn't come up on Google searches when partnered with “Wonderwall.” We can assume there was no Squeeze, Electric Light Orchestra,...

Fifty years later, the new episode of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast takes a deep look back at the original Woodstock, with Country Joe McDonald, Santana percussionist Michael Carabello and Andy Zax — producer of a comprehensive new box set — joining host Brian Hiatt.

Zax explains the complex and surprising years-long process behind the box that chronicles every minute of the festival’s music, and delves into some of the newly available sets, including Creedence Clearwater Revival’s revelatory performance. “They’re kind of remarkable,” Zax says. “They feel to...

Beach Boys singer Mike Love celebrates a familiar locale on his breezy new song “California Beach.” Over stacked vocal harmonies, acoustic strums and bright keys, the frontman romanticizes a scene “where surfers and surfing, and dancers are dancing.”

“That mythical place out west; the California I’ve been blessed to call home has provided a lifetime of inspiration,” Love says of the track. “California Beach, in reality is not one, but many wonderful places that have held an allure beckoning so many for countless years. This song has been living...

On December 7th, 1962, 26-year-old bassist Bill Wyman went to the Wetherby Arms pub in the Chelsea neighborhood of London to audition for the Rolling Stones as a possible replacement for founding member Dick Taylor. As Wyman recounts in this exclusive clip from his upcoming documentary The Quiet One, the band was initially a little skeptical he was the one for the job. “They asked me what music I liked,” said Wyman. “I said, ‘Chuck Berry’ and they said, ‘Great!’ I said, ‘Jerry Lee Lewis,’ ‘No!’ ‘Eddie Cochran,’ ‘No!’ All the rock & rollers,...

As on-the-road misbehavior went, it was pretty tame. On tour in Seattle in the spring of 1972, Jeff Forehan and three of his shaggy-haired bandmates got ahold of some weed. Squeezing into a hotel bathrooms, the pop singers happily toked up, using the ceiling fan to suck up the smoke and ensure they weren’t caught.

Except they were — by some of their other bandmates, no less. The next thing they knew, Forehan and his fellow performers in the band — the Young Americans — were having what he calls “a little confrontation...

She’s been dubbed “the sweet lady with the nasty voice,” and anyone who has met her and had seen her perform live can appreciate the dichotomy of that statement. Wanda Jackson, the undisputed Queen of Rockabilly Music, bridged nascent rock & roll with traditional country in the Fifties, then proceeded to blow up that bridge with a one-of-a-kind voice like spring-loaded dynamite wrapped in sandpaper.

The 81-year-old Jackson, who recently announced her retirement from performing after more than 60 years, has had an ardent following not only in the U.S.

It only takes the first two seconds of the first song on their first record for Led Zeppelin to make crystal clear exactly what they intend to do — and exactly what they intend to do to you. In the opening to “Good Times Bad Times,” the band drops a two-note attack that falls like a cartoon safe, clearing the air for John Bonham’s syncopated groove, Jimmy Page’s swift-sword guitar and Robert Plant’s high-end howling about sex so loud it gets the neighbors talking. “It really wasn’t a pretty thing,...

Mamie Van Doren Film Noir Collection

Blu ray

Kl Studio Classics

1957 – 1959 / 1.75:1, 1.85:1, / 216 Min. / Street Date – November 20, 2018

Starring Mamie Van Doren, Anne Bancroft, Lee Van Cleef, Lex Barker

Cinematography by Stanley Cortez, William Margulies

Directed by Howard Koch, Edward Cahn

Mamie Van Doren, née Joan Lucille Olander, was born in Rowena, South Dakota in 1931. In 1942 the family relocated to Hollywood where the camera-ready kid blossomed at the speed of light – a Pantages usherette at the age of 13, she racked up a string of attention-grabbing gigs that led to a reign as Miss Eight Ball and the inevitable merger with Tinseltown’s preeminent lounge lizard, Howard Hughes.

That arrangement generated a distinctly higher-profile for the industrious starlet – from an eye-popping Alberto Vargas pinup to swivel-hipped walk-ons in a series of forgettable potboilers and finally a contract at Universal. A cheeky studio exec christened her “Mamie” thereby hijacking the name of President...

French rock idol Johnny Hallyday, remembered as the nation’s answer to Elvis Presley in the 1960s, has died at age 74.

The legendary singer died from lung cancer, his family confirmed.

“Johnny Hallyday has left us,” Hallyday’s wife, Laeticia, said in a statement to The Guardian. “I write these words without believing them. But yet, it’s true. My man is no longer with us. He left us tonight as he lived his whole life, with courage and dignity.”

Beginning in 1960, Hallyday was the heartbeat of Gallic rock n’ roll, becoming its best known and best-selling artist for nearly six decades.

A rock n’ roll time capsule and quintessential teenagers-in-love movie circa 1959. Two jukebox icons, guitar genius Chuck Berry and top dog DJ Alan Freed introduce the story of “Johnny Melody”, a former choir boy (!) who finds the road to rock and roll stardom fraught with peril. Along with the typical teen angst the movie is bolstered by performances from the era’s great rockers including Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran and of course Berry himself.

Though his music can be heard in all corners of the globe, Paul McCartney’s songwriting process is impressively homegrown. When he teamed with Elvis Costello for sessions that would ultimately yield his 1989 album Flowers in the Dirt, the pair met at McCartney’s personal studio: a converted corn mill dubbed Hog Hill Mill, a short drive from his farm in rural southern England. Armed with nothing more high-tech than a pencil, paper and acoustic guitar, two of the world’s most influential composers climbed the steps to a small office tucked above the studio and pulled tunes out of thin air.

The BBC has commissioned a rock 'n' roll season of programming on TV and radio.

BBC Four, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music will all broadcast programmes that celebrate this genre, including a special three-part documentary series narrated by David Morrissey as well as rock-themed radio shows and specials.

Rock n Roll America will look at the beginnings of rock music in the USA in the 1950s, before its explosion around the world with the help of TV appearances by Elvis Presley and culminating with the game-changing arrival of The Beatles in America in 1964.

The Walking Dead actor David Morrissey will narrate the series, which also features exclusive interviews with a number of iconic names in music, including Ben E King, Tom Jones, Ronnie Spector, Jerry Lee Lewis and Don Everly.

The first part of the new documentary series will premiere on BBC Four on July 3, with parts two and...

Wait, doesn't that sound just like … ? From Lady Gaga and Madonna to Vanilla Ice and David Bowie, the music industry has always been rife with song rip-off accusations. On Tuesday, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were ordered to pay a whopping $7.3 million to the estate of Marvin Gaye for lifting the beat for their 2013 hit "Blurred Lines" from Gaye's 1977 song "Got To Give It Up." Though she songs do sound awfully familiar, the lines between "inspiration" and "theft" are definitely very blurred. (Williams told jurors during the trial that he must have just "been channeling that feeling, that late-'70s feeling,...

February 3, 1959 has become one of the most mythic days in rock 'n' roll history. It's the day the 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza 35 carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson crashed in an Iowa cornfield. To many, it's simply the day the music died. Buddy Holly was touring with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, on a jaunt that was scheduled to hit 25 Midwestern cities in three weeks. Angered by rough bus tours that left band members sick with the flu and one hospitalized with frostbite, Holly decided to charter a plane from Iowa to Minnesota. The official...

Review by Sam Moffitt

I love finding new things.

Writers I never heard of, music I’m not familiar with, a movie recommended by a friend I trust. Even better than finding something new is discovering that the material in question is a lot better than expected. I like to be surprised, I enjoy the professional output of talented people, writers, film makers, musicians, artists in general.

But nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for the atom bomb blast the Collins Kids have put on me.

A little back ground first. I recently went on vacation and drove to Missouri from my home in St. Petersburg, Florida to visit my family at our reunion over Labor Day weekend. I drove there through Mississippi and took my time, visited places that interested me. Stopped in Indianola, Ms and visited the B.B. King Museum (I highly recommend it by...

The following article is provided by Rolling Stone.

By Ryan Reed

Pete Townshend has responded to One Direction fans furious over an Internet rumor that the Who were pursuing legal action over the boy band's "Best Song Ever," which bears more than a passing resemblance to "Baba O'Riley." Not true, Townshend said yesterday in a statement.

Link: Rolling Stone’s List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time: Pete Townshend

"No! I like the single. I like One Direction," Townshend said. "The chords I used and the chords they used are the same three chords we've all been using in basic pop music since Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry made it clear that fancy chords don't mean great music – not always. I'm still writing songs that sound like 'Baba O'Riley' – or I'm trying to!"

Link: Rolling Stone’s List of the 500 Greatest Albums of all Time: ‘The Who Sell Out’

In fact,...

With summer just around the corner, the music industry is poised to start dropping tons of new tracks in hopes of bringing the heat -- but what to listen to on the days you don't feel like sweating it out on the dancefloor? To craft the perfect soundtrack for beating the heat, ETonline has turned to Haley Strode, star of Nickelodeon's newest hit series, Wendell & Vinnie.

"This is a compilation of what I consider to be necessary summertime tunes," Strode tells ETonline, "meant to be listened to in this order."

Tobias Froberg, Somewhere in the City

"There must be a party ... somewhere in the city." These rad lyrics help inspire a carefree summer.

The La's, There She Goes

This songs is nostalgia at its core, summer in middle school, knee socks and all.

James Brown, It's a Man's Man's Man's World

This song reminds me of a summer I lived in NYC; James Brown is a bad...

Music can make an average ad great. So why, Robin Hicks asks, is music the last thing a creative thinks about when writing an ad?

My favourite TV ad of the year so far is the Let Yourself Go spot for Kangaroo Island.

When it didn’t win Mumbrella’s Ad of the Month for March (it came third) I felt aggrieved for the agency that made it. But less so a week later when it emerged that the agency had paid celebrities to tweet nice things about its work.

Let Yourself Go is a stunning spot with lots of pretty images. But it would probably have had a similar effect on me if I’d watched a blank screen for 60 seconds.

John Baker of Adelaide ad agency Kwp!, which made the ad, told me that the music (Rise by Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder) “is 50% of the communication”. For me,...

By Zachary Swickey

The White Stripes may have called it quits earlier this year, but we’ve seen and heard plenty from former frontman Jack White since their demise. Adding yet another eccentric appearance to the list is word that White will appear on the History Channel’s “American Pickers” next week.

The show is admittedly addictive, following two friends/business partners as they scour various barns, homes and junkyards across the country in search of hidden antiques. The episode is set to air at 9Pm Est on January 9 and will feature pickers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fitz as they visit White’s Third Man Studios and label home in Nashville. The two will reportedly barter with the music icon over memorabilia, which will include the photo booth used in the music video for “Hang You From the Heavens” by one of White’s many musical projects, The Dead Weather.

Tom Waits has been called a lot of things, but “rockabilly cat” was probably never among them. That’s just one of many guises the veteran eccentric takes on in “Bad as Me,” his first all-new release in eight years and a leading album-of-the-year contender. Just when you think you’ve got Waits half-figured, the king of grizzled-dom -- and musical gristle -- goes all Eddie Cochran on us in “Get Lost.” “Roll down all the windows, turn up Wolfman Jack/Please, please love me tender, ain’t nothin’ wrong with that,” he sings, sounding...

Why Watch? Looking like Eddie Cochran hooked a projector onto his Fender amp and then blasted it up to eleven with a healthy dose of distortion, The Ghosts gives the 50s throw back feel a slight punk twist. A young, bored girl falls in love with the mysterious leader of a leather jacketed gang. It’s the black and white nostalgia of the rough and ready era filtered through a modern day lens. Stay golden, Pony Boy. What Will It Cost? Just 13 lucky minutes of your time. Does it get better any better than that? Check out The Ghosts for yourself: The Ghosts (2011) Directed By: Eddie O’Keefe Written By: Eddie O’Keefe & Jack Guimon Starring: Kate Cobb, Alexander Koch, and Jack Guimon Trust us. You have time for more short films.

I don't hate the Beatles in the least bit, but for a long time I did take an unpopular position against them, mostly just as a knee jerk reaction against the mainstream. All the cheap merchandise, the overexposure, the boppy fans who just listen to what is fed to them over the radio and don't make much effort to educate themselves about music... it can really start to weigh on a guy. Sometimes you have to lash out and loudly declare that the "Beatles suck, this record is overplayed suck," at your girlfriend's birthday party when she puts on "Sgt. Pepper's," her favorite album, and just stand there drinking bourbon straight from the bottle while her horrified girlfriends look on.

Yeah, nobody likes that guy. But sometimes, you have to shake people up, open their eyes for their own good. With the Beatles on iTunes now we can only expect...

A relatively unknown band appears on tonight's Conan Episode features Fistful of Mercy. Conan O'Brien launched his new show Conan on TBS and it's been pretty slick so far. As the norm goes, Conan's musical choices have been nothing short of spectacular.

He opened the premiere show with his pal Jack White, who produced and released this year's "Conan O'Brien Live at Third Man", a vinyl-only release to lead the new "Basic Cable Band" through the Eddie Cochran song, "Twenty Flight Rock,".

Last night old grunge legends Soundgarden made their first television appearance in 13 years to debut their new song "Black Rain" which sounding as heavy and grungy as they did when they abandoned the music scene. So glad to see that band back in action!

For Conan's debut show last night it's new home on TBS, he brought in pal Jack White, as musical guest. The famous buddies met over a decade ago in a bowling alley and have been on notorious friends ever since. The camaraderie was thick, the facial hair, scruffy as Conan joined White for the rock out segment of the show.

The two ripped it on stage with Jimmy Vivino and crew, playing "Twenty Flight Rock," an Eddie Cochran oldie from 1957. The duo played the song together before, and recorded previously on White's Third Man label.

Check them out if you missed it, or just to see them a second time, reaching over and fooling with each others guitar during the song like giddy little kids.

[Pitchfork]...

After months of touring, tweeting and generally building up his legend, Conan O'Brien made his return to television on Monday night (November 8th) with the first episode of "Conan," his new late night show on TBS. Though not everything worked, it was a feel-good start to a comeback that will no doubt ignite the late night world once again.

The show began with a series of clips that immediately addressed the flap with NBC and Jay Leno over "The Tonight Show" (which featured Conan getting executed at a toll booth in a nod to Sonny Corleone's death in "The Godfather") and sending up what Conan had been up to since he left TV (including applying for a job with Sterling Cooper Draper Price, working at Burger King and serving as the world's worst birthday clown). With the help of his guardian angel Larry King, he ended up on basic cable and back on the air.

KT Tunstall's new single "Fade Like a Shadow" got a music video treatment and it has been premiered for fans' viewing pleasure. The single is taken from her upcoming studio installment "Tiger Suit" which is set for September 28 U.S. release.

The song talks about a person who haunted Tunstall for many months. She told Music Remedy, "The person is still very much alive, but my interactions with them led to these weird, almost visitation-like feelings that I found difficult to shake off."

As for the album, she recalled the process, stating "I recorded out in Berlin at legendary studio Hansa with Jim Abbiss producing. I decided to tap into a diverse array of influences and we drew from some of our collectively favorite sounds; Leftfield, Eddie Cochran, The Cocteau Twins, Bow Wow Wow, Adam and the Ants, Ali Farke Toure...as you can imagine, it's a pretty different listen!

On top of getting full lists of "Just Dance 2" tracks and "Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock" songs this week, we've also received a complete soundtrack listing for a game you may not have been looking forward to for its tunes — "Mafia 2." 2K Games released the rundown ahead of a live one-hour playthrough they're hosting today at 2Pm Pst via Ustream.

Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Louis Prima and Little Richard all appear on the game's soundtrack, which has been posted on the "Mafia 2" website. If "GTA Godfather" has always been something you thought you might like to play with some bona fide Ratpack music in the background, you should find the entries here to your liking:

• Gatemouth Moore - "Did You Ever Love A Woman"

• Al Hibbler - "After the Lights Go Down Low"

• Al Hibbler - "Count Every Star"

• The Ames Brothers - "My Bonnie Lassie"

• The Andrews Sisters -...

School's out, so let our guest experts help you make the most of the British summer. Here's what to watch, what to listen to, what to read, how to picnic to perfection, and how to find the best beaches

How to spot a good beach by Hugh Graham

The editor of Time Out's Seaside Guide suggests 10 ways to know you've found the perfect beach:

1) Crashing waves

The appropriately named Hell's Mouth in north Wales puts on quite a show, as do Freshwater West (Pembrokeshire) and Sennen Cove (Cornwall).

2) Great views

The views above Rhossili Bay, a sublime Welsh strand on the Gower, rival the world's great coastal vistas.

3) Caribbean feel

In the sunshine, the turquoise seas and talcum-powder sand at Luskentyre, on the Hebridean island of Harris, are almost Bahamian.

4) Crag action

I love a bit of cragginess. Bedruthan Steps in north Cornwall takes rugged good looks to extremes.

5) Sand...

So much has been written and recorded about the mythology of the Beatles that it almost seems like they're not quite a band anymore — as though they have transcended the physical world of albums and tours and singles and morphed into some sort of benevolent cosmic presence. And maybe they have (and they probably deserve it, even if you only consider side three of The White Album). But even legends started somewhere, and the Beatles first began their journey to greatness on this day in 1957 when Paul McCartney met John Lennon for the first time.

As the story goes, McCartney had become a fan of Lennon's first band the Quarrymen, a skiffle group he formed while he was still at school with four other friends. On July 6, 1957, the group had a gig at a festival hosted by St. Peter's Church in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool. McCartney was introduced to Lennon by a mutual friend.

Denim in cinema has been popularised by some of the great screen icons of the twentieth century. From Marlon Brando (The Wild One) to Steve McQueen (Junior Bonner), Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke) to John Travolta (Urban Cowboy), Grace Kelly (Rear Window) to Brigitte Bardot (And God Created Woman).

Similar to the business suit, denim is a sartorial way of life that confers immediate personality on a person without them having to do or say anything; this personality has evolved through time and trends, though one facet remains intact: rebelliousness.

Denim’s symbolism has been created on film from real life frontier mythology. Art imitates life; imitates art. At one time Brando wore jeans like the cowboys, now the cowboys wear jeans like Brando. It is not difficult to understand how James Dean in a pair of Lee 101 Riders jeans was the birth of the American teenager. As Jim Stark...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: Before playing perhaps the largest gig of his career, Conan O’Brien played the smallest.

The sarcastic red head, who notoriously lost “The Tonight Show” to rival Jay Leno, continues to tour the country as part of his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television tour. One of his next stops will be the stage of the massive Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee.

But before he played that venue, O’Brien rewarded 300 Nashville-based, Team Coco fans with a tiny, intimate gig at the offices of Third Man Records, a music label owned by Jack White of The White Stripes.

“Being in the room was like being in a revival tent. There was so much energy,” Aaron Bleyaert, an official Team Coco blogger, told the New York Daily News.

O’Brien and the band that backs him on tour ripped through renditions of Tony Joe White...

While performing a surprise concert with Jack White in Nashville last night, Conan O'Brien announced his plan to release a vinyl album of rockabilly hits. The 300 fans who packed into White's Third Man Records heard a sneak peak of the recording, which will include covers of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock," Elvis Presley's "Blue Moon," The Stray Cats' "Rock This Town" and Radiohead's "Creep." A fan in the audience posted video from the night here. [Yahoo!]...